Starting a Team

Elementary Science Olympiad teams will not be restricted by school affiliation or enrollment. This means that any coach can recruit and organize any eligible students regardless of their association with any means of garnering an education. However, as a means for requiring that teams be representative of local areas, the North Carolina Science Olympiad will require that a team's head coach declare an official central team address at the beginning of each year. Student participation on that team will require that the student have a permanent address which is within a thirty (30) minute driving time (radius) of the team's central address or be within the same geographic county. Coaches will be responsible for ensuring that this requirement is observed by using MapQuest database information as the standard measure of driving time.

Each elementary team is made of up to twelve (15) students from grades 3-6. Teams should have a balanced representation of grades, gender, and ethnic background represented by the school/group. In all cases, each team must be supervised/coached by a parent/teacher/coach. A maximum of five (5) sixth graders are allowed on any one team. It is strongly encouraged to have sixth graders compete on a middle school team.Teams wanting to use students below third grade are allowed to do so.

I Have My Team Together. Now What?

You must register your team on this website. Once you are registered, go to your tournament's information page and see what events your area is offering. Not all tournaments offer every event. Once you know what the events are, introduce them to your team. Help pages are available for each elementary event on the NCSO website. A State Office Representative will be more than happy to come visit your school and speak to parents, teachers, students, and the class goldfish about events, setting up a team, how parents can help, etc.. If you would like to schedule a meeting, email Jason Painter (jlpainter@gmail.com) to set a date.

How Do I Assign Students to Their Events?

Once the students have an idea what events they like, you will need to place them in their events. To do this, you will need to check the schedule for your region (on your tournament's information page) to make sure you do not place the same student in 2 events during the same time period. For example, in the sample schedule shown here, the events are split into 3 time periods. A student could not compete in Simple Machines and Grasp a Graph, because they are both in the first time period. An easy way to divide teams is to have each student fill out a sheet (sample shown here) ranking each event in each time period 1 through 5 by which event they like the most. A good rule for distributing events is the 'rule of 3', where each student may not get their first choices, but as long as their average is 3 or less, they should still be happy. You may have to explain the concept of teamwork, and taking one for the team if a student ends up in an event they are less than thrilled about.

Coaches and students should read the event rules for the events each students is competing in at the tournament. Coaches and students should work together to prepare for the tournament; however, students should ultimately take responsibility for their own learning by creating portfolios, notes, diagrams, questions, and study materials for the event. The events cover the NC Standard Course of Study and coaches and teachers should serve as resources in preparing for events. Help pages are available for every event here.

What Can Parents Do?

Parents can help in a multitude of ways, they do not have to have any special knowledge. A large part of Olympiad is simply being able to put students together with their event partners to work on events outside of regular school hours. In construction events, parents can simply read through the rules and make sure their child can show how each part of their device meets the regulations listed in the rules (proper dimensions, allowed materials, etc). Likewise, with content events, parents can make sure their child is preparing for the event appropriately. If a binder of handwritten notes is allowed, the student should not be preparing typed sheets. Parents can also volunteer their time supervising after school meetings, providing snacks, etc. Most students only need a push in the right direction or a way to connect to the proper resources, be it a library, internet, or a member of the community with specialized knowledge.

So What Does a Tournament Look Like?

Tournaments are set up like a track meet. Each student has individual events that they compete in, instead of shotput and javelin, a student would compete in Pasta Tower and Describe It, Build It. Students receive individual rankings in each individual event they compete in, and at the end of the day all the individual event rankings are added together to get the total Team Score. Students are able to earn medals in their individual events, and teams can also win an overall trophy for their school.

Prior to Tournament Day

Your event coordinator will email you lots of information, including parking details, schedules and maps, facility restrictions (can you bring a tent, coolers, etc) and other helpful details that you should print for your team and parents. We will do our best to post all this information on your tournament's information page. Questions specificaly regarding your tournament (location, logistics, etc) should be directed to your tournament coordinator. Questions regarding the content of events, technical requirements, and interpretations of the rules should be directed to the state office, jlpainter@gmail.com or kellstuh@gmail.com

What Should I do on Tournament Day?

When you arrive at the tournament location, set up a home base. Some tournaments have empty classrooms or a cafeteria you can use, otherwise choose a spot in a hallway, or bring a tent (if your location allows it) and set up outdoors. This is the spot that students should know to return to if they get done early, get lost, or need something they forgot. You should keep extra materials, snacks, etc. here. Be sure to arrive early enough to register (tournament officials may have paperwork or information for you) and make sure your students can find their event rooms. Bring plenty of parent support! You should have a pretty good idea by now of which students will need to be reminded when it is time to go to their next event or not to forget their safety goggles.